For this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post I thought I would share a few more pictures from my recent visit to Rondevlei Nature Reserve here in the Western Cape of South Africa. I shared one picture last week. As a quick reminder, Rondevlei is a vlei or marsh that is home to the Western Cape’s only population of hippos. When I visited the vlei a little over a week ago, the water level was low, and I saw some very impressive mudcracks and salt accumulations. I didn’t see any hippos, unfortunately– I’ll have to go back to the vlei one evening since the hippos are not active during the day.

 

Yesterday my husband and I visited the Rondevlei Nature Reserve here in the Western Cape of South Africa. Rondevlei is the only place in the Western Cape where hippos live. Hippos lived in the Western Cape historically, but they went extinct in the 1700s. A few hippos were re-introduced to Rondevlei in the 1980s. We didn’t see any hippos during our walk around Rondevlei– apparently hippos are seen in the evening when they’re active. However, we did see some impressive mudcracks since the water level in the vlei or marsh is quite low at the moment. A view of some of the mudcracks is shown above.